Maybe it's just me, but I really do doubt it when Fiat CS tell me they're in Italy. I've called quite a few times and had 3 different people look at my cases and all of them have been very British. Stephen and Dominic sounded rather English and the Jennifer was very Scottish, so much so that when told that she was on lunch I envisioned a wee Scottish lass with flowing red hair sitting by a loch washing down her lunctime deep fried Mars bar with some Irn Bru.

Does anyone here know whether they're actually in Italy or they just say it for effect. What sort of effect that would be I don't know, I don't give a toss whether they're in Yemen, I just want my car fixed.

It's quite possible that they have some native english speakers on the team who are based in Italy (I know that intel had native speakers based in Swindon who dealt with clients in their native country from the UK when I was there).

I've no experience of the Fiat CS yet though - I've been waiting for someone to ring me for my "so how did you find your buying experience" survey.

FloJo said:

It's quite possible that they have some native english speakers on the team who are based in Italy (I know that intel had native speakers based in Swindon who dealt with clients in their native country from the UK when I was there).

I've no experience of the Fiat CS yet though - I've been waiting for someone to ring me for my "so how did you find your buying experience" survey.

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Keep on waiting

Fiat CS in Greece is definately based in Greece!

The guy I originally talked to when I had DPF and clutch noise problems was based in Slough.

They are in Slough

RobW said:

They are in Slough

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Are you saying that they were lying to me?!?!?!?!

Nice English speaking (but not native) girl I spoke to earlier to find our lost twinair+ said she was in "Milano"

sixer said:

Nice English speaking (but not native) girl I spoke to earlier to find our lost twinair+ said she was in "Milano"

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What time was that? I've found after 5:30 or so you do seem to go through to Italian sounding people.

grimwau said:

The guy I originally talked to when I had DPF and clutch noise problems was based in Slough.

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I wonder if they're just told to say "I'm in Italy" so you'll be more forgiving of their fecklessness?

Time was around 1530hrs. Maybe you bounce out to them if the Slough bit is busy?

sixer said:

Time was around 1530hrs. Maybe you bounce out to them if the Slough bit is busy?

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No, when they're busy you just sit in a queue for ages.

Perhaps you just spoke to a British person who just had a very poor standard of English?

The company I work for has a sales office where everyone is fluent in at least 3 languages. Quite impressive to hear them on the phone in perhaps Italian, the hang up, chat in English then the phone rings and off they go in German.

Hellcat said:

The company I work for has a sales office where everyone is fluent in at least 3 languages. Quite impressive to hear them on the phone in perhaps Italian, the hang up, chat in English then the phone rings and off they go in German.

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Well these people are definitely native English speakers

Plenty of English people living in Italy (my sister for starters).

And if you were going to work in a call centre would you rather do it in Middlesborough or Milan?

When I phoned them 2 years ago it was an English man who was based in Arese the old Alfa Factory in Milan, as we got talking about my old GT Junior and he was telling me they'd had a new 8C on the premises and about the Alfa Museum based there, so I believed him

Here you go Maxi!

http://www.customercenter.fiat.com/eng/en_lenostresedi.html

They are indeed based in Italy. When I first read this thread I thought they were based in Leeds, but I believe that's just where the finance bit (FGA Capital) are based.

Perhaps things have changed recently then from a few years ago

I was called after my recent service and she definitely had a Berkshire accent

Well according to Maxi they are mostly members of the Berkshire Hunt.

RobW said:

Perhaps things have changed recently then from a few years ago

I was called after my recent service and she definitely had a Berkshire accent

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Well that's the thing, they all have British accents. I think I've spoken to about a dozen people on the front end and only a couple didn't sound British. The 3 people dealing with my case were all native English speakers.